Connecting your website with your companion mobile web application

Depending on the settings of your mobile web application, there are two ways that you can connect it with your website:

1) Using the Mobile Switcher Script

This option is available for all accounts types (free or paid) and Content Management Systems (WordPress, Drupal, Joomla , etc.). It involves adding a snippet of code in the source of your website, between theandtags. This method is available as long as you haven’t opted for connecting your WordPress website by using an API Key.

Also, it requires the setup of a custom app address (subdomain) for your mobile web application. If this step was not completed, the administration area of your application will contain a notification message just under the top bar, alerting you about the additional steps necessary to complete the setup process (see also “How to set up your mobile web application”):

In a similar way, the “Distribute” page of the application will notify you about the missing subdomain:

The Mobile Switcher script is retrieved from the “Distribute” page, presented in the image below. Once the code is copy & pasted in the…section of your website, it will display a top bar notification to readers visiting the website from a supported mobile device.

Tip #1. If you use WordPress, the script must be placed in the header.php file of your current theme, between the…tags. The header.php file can be edited from the WordPress admin panel > Appearance > Editor.

For editing your website files, you will need access to a FTP account or control panel with a file manager. If you don’t know these credentials, your hosting company should be able to retrieve them for you.

Please note that an automatic redirect will not be performed, readers will have the option to access the mobile web application or close the notification message and continue navigating on the desktop version.

2) Connecting with the WordPress Mobile Pack API Key

If you have a WordPress blog with an installed WordPress Mobile Pack plugin and a Plus, Premium or VIP account, you can choose to redirect readers to the mobile web application by using an API Key. In this case, the setup of the Mobile Switcher script is no longer needed, as the two methods perform the same task.

A custom address (subdomain) is not mandatory for this redirect method, but it can be added if you desire.

Important! Please note that the WordPress account used for connecting your website from the Appticles dashboard requires editor or admin permissions. The content can’t be accessed via the WordPress XMLRPC API for accounts with lower permissions. As an alternative, you can use feeds for importing the content, but the API key will not be available in this case.

How to create or remove an API Key

From the Manage > Content section of your mobile web application, you can add your WordPress blog by pressing the “Connect” button. An overlay will be displayed, asking you to enter your credentials and choosing if you want to generate an API Key.

The API key will be automatically removed if your disconnect your WordPress blog (Manage > Content section for the application). The API key can be found:

In the overlay window that displays the required steps to complete the application’s setup:

How to verify your API Key

The API Key is verified from the Settings page of the WordPress Mobile Pack admin area, located on your website. At this point, the icon, logo, application cover and Google Analytics ID that you have already added in the plugin admin area will be copied in your Appticles.com application dashboard. If you have already edited these settings from the Appticles.com dashboard, they will not be overwritten.

Please note that starting from this release of the Appticles.com dashboard, connecting the API key requires at least v2.1.1 of the WordPress Mobile Pack plugin. If you’re using v2.1, please upgrade your plugin with the latest stable version from the WordPress repository.

How does the API Key work

Once the API Key is connected, it will transform the WordPress Mobile Pack admin area into a single page, notifying you that the application’s settings will from now on be managed from the Appticles.com dashboard . A “Disconnect” button is displayed in case you want to revert to the classic plugin administration.

In case of a connected blog, the index file of the mobile web application resides on your website. All other resources – the application’s configuration file, Javascript & CSS files and content – are loaded from the Appticles.com CDN (Content Delivery Network) and API. Since it uses resources from the hosted platform, connecting an API key requires a paid account.

If a reader is visiting your blog from a supported mobile device, he or she will be automatically redirected to the mobile web application. This detection process is the same regardless if the WordPress Mobile Pack plugin is connected with the Appticles.com dashboard or not.

Tip #2. In case you don’t want an automatic redirect to be performed, using the Mobile Switcher script provides you with this option.

The settings of the application are cached in the plugin and refreshed at every 10 minutes, so the changes that you make from the Appticles.com dashboard will not be immediately visible in the connected application. If you want to make changes visible right away, you can disconnect & connect the API key, that will regenerate the configuration file and cache it.